Have you ever taken a dream vacation that you think is out of reach? You don’t have to be out of reach, and how to reach that dream destination can be as easy as a new credit card application. Using credit card rewards is a great way to promote experiences that you can’t otherwise afford. But you need a little knowledge, preparation and the right tools. Maximize Best Travel Credit Cards It can give you the boost you need to make your travel dream come true.
In my case, the new credit card was my ticket to an unforgettable trip to the North. This is how I use it Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card To see the breathtaking aurora.
Choose your dream destination
My wife has celebrated a milestone birthday that we would like to commemorate with a special trip. I told her to choose anywhere in the world, but find a way to make it happen using her knowledge of credit card points and miles. Yes, that’s a bit of a big promise, but I’m confident from years of experience under my belt.
She always wanted to see the Northern Lights. And after doing research for recommendation, she chose Rovaniemi, Finland, as our destination.
However, a quick look at the local area showed that none of the major hotel brands even closed their hotel options to either of the Hyatt, Hilton or Marriott. And although there were many beautiful resorts in Rovaniemi, they were pretty expensive while we were able to travel. We were prepared to splurge a bit, but in many cases the top resorts cost over $1,000 per night.
Find the right card
To make this trip more affordable, Reward Card It has the specific features you need for this type of trip, such as:
- You can redeem your statement credit after a flexible miles or point trip
- Solid return rate and redemption value
- Welcome offer
For such travel expenses, there is a clear choice Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Combining the above features, the ability to earn extra miles through referrals to your wife (who already had a card), making it the only card I seriously considered with this unique booking.
Welcome Offer and Revenue Rate
While planning a trip, Venture X received a solid 75,000 miles of welcome after spending $4,000 on a purchase within the first three months. According to Bank rate evaluationthe capital city is worth about 1.7 cents per point when redeemed for a valuable travel partner. I already had the card, so after the account was opened I was able to introduce my wife to the card to earn another 25,000 miles on my account. It’s worth an additional $425.
This card also earns a simple flat rate of twice as much on every purchase. And if I booked Capital One TravelI was able to earn 5x miles on my flight and 10x miles on my hotel or car rental. I was able to get it too $300 per year travel credit Through the portal, this is a great chunk of potential travel.
Signing your wife for this card and winning a welcome offer works perfectly. This is because hotel bookings alone covers most of your spending requirements.
Travel booking
My first step was to search the travel portal for the options I wanted. When I found the hotel my wife wanted, I decided to compare the price of the booking directly with the price on the travel portal. The prices were pretty high, but if you booked directly at the resort and could get a free breakfast too, it was a bit expensive. However, after considering travel credits and 10x return rates, I found out that if I used a travel portal instead, it would come out first for a few hundred dollars.
I paid a slightly lower priced booking directly at the resort, but only earned twice as many miles instead of ten times the miles. This may not necessarily be the case for each trip, but checking the numbers is not harmful. For us, the increased revenue provided significantly more value, making this an ideal booking.
Cover travel purchases for additional savings
The booking was great, but that’s not why I went to Venture X for this trip. With Venture X, you can redeem miles for one mile per mile to cover travel purchases made with your card. You can also redeem miles up to 90 days after your purchase. This meant that we could accumulate more miles through additional spending and cover as many purchases as possible in that time frame. There is no need to purchase a total miles at the time of purchase. This means you’ll be best suited to flexibility and you can maximize every miles you earn.
Redemption of statement credits for travel purchases cannot make the maximum of capital to the maximum of miles, but this was the best option available to save money on stays at this particular hotel. And there is no other feature Premium Travel CardThis trip was the perfect time to add Venture X to your wallet.
Maximize the value
Welcome to meet spending requirements earned 83,000 miles using the per mile rating we plan to use. I already had the card so I introduced the card to my wife with an additional 25,000 miles added to my account. That rating is worth an additional $250. I also recently got a 10,000 miles anniversary bonus to renew my card (worth an additional $100 in this scenario). So before spending more, I already had a potential saving worth $1,180.
I called Capital One and transferred all my existing points to my wife’s account. Towards the end of the 90-day window, we redeemed all the total points for a massive savings on booking. I saved nearly $1,500 on roughly 75% of my total costs. The only thing that stopped us from covering more costs was the ability to spend in the 90-day window after our first booking.
All said, we were able to beat the costs from thousands to hundreds of dollars, and as a result we enjoyed one of the best trips of our life. It takes a lot of work and if you’re not doing research it can feel like a slow. But the end result speaks for itself.
Conclusion
There’s no need to give up planning your dream vacation just because you don’t have the option to use traditional credit card points and miles. Cards like Venture X provide outdoor ways to save money on various aspects of your travels. It may be a somewhat complicated process, but the more effort you put into it, the more you save to make your travel dream a reality.
